The Trump Republicans, who won the Senate and Congressional
majorities in November just passed the largest deficit for the federal budget at three trillion,
dwarfing anything the Democrats did.
The actions of the Trump Congress will cause 11.8 million low-income
and working-class people to lose their medical insurance through the insurance
exchanges and Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. This is
approximately a third of all the enrollees. For most of these people, the
insurance exchanges are the only way they can obtain medical insurance. Without
medical insurance, many of these people will cease to receive care, regardless
of their health. The United States does provide hospital treatment for people
in urgent need, which is dependent on the location one lives, and how well resourced
their healthcare safety nets are maintained.
Even if throwing nearly 12 million people under the bus does
not bother you, the strain on the national economy should and here is your
basic lesson in economics. The United States is a debtor nation, which means it
needs investors from other nations to buy our bonds, which are a debt
instrument, to keep US currency strong and to pay the interest on our national
debt. The national currency has lost over 10% of its value since January, an
unprecedented slide which continues. In the past, the purchase of American bonds
from foreign nationals has been considered a safe investment in a world of
risk. The Trump Administration has destroyed that impression through his
inefficient and historic levels of tariffs and other aggressive actions which
undermine financial security for all of us. The Trump Administration has
stepped back from a position of global leadership, with gargantuan cuts to USAID,
a program championed by Republican and Democratic presidents, as well as the
Foreign Service, and other programs which reflected well on the United States.
This vacuum has been filled by China, in Asia and now, because of the Trump
Administration’s closing of US Embassies in Africa as well. In financial terms,
the US can expect to pay higher interest rates to bondholders because of the
perceived increased risk in the national currency. This will have a compounding
effect of increased budget constraints, which will require higher taxes or
program cuts. Many Republicans would love to cut Medicare and Social Security
and the Social Security funding is only adequate until 2035. These programs are
essentially the only safety net for working class people in America. It appears
that Trump has assured the current generation of “robber barons” tax breaks
into perpetuity while the other 90% will be groveling for scraps, left to serve
the needs of the uber wealthy.
And this is the healthpolicymaven signing off encouraging
you not to sign blanket releases for healthcare facilities, do specify which lifesaving
procedures for which you consent and those which you decline.
Roberta Winter is a freelance journalist who received no
money for this post. This healthcare and public policy blog has been in continuous
publication since the fourth quarter of 2007, for those of you who still read.
Katie Edmondson, K. H. (2025, July 1). Trump
Administration Live Updates: Senate Passes Trump’s Signature Policy Bill. The
New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2025, from
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/01/us/trump-bill-news
Sanger-Katz, M. (2025, June 29). G.O.P. Bill Has
$1.1 Trillion in Health Cuts and 11.8 Million Losing Care, C.B.O. Says. The
New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2025, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/us/politics/trump-policy-bill-health-insurance-cuts.html
